The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission didn't just raise tolls last week; it hired a contractor too: HNTB Corp., a Missouri company with five offices including Harrisburg, will move forward with the commission's plans to convert to an all-electronic tolling system that would eliminate the use of cash along the 545-mile route.

The $6 million agreement signals the Turnpike Commission's intent to convert to an all-electronic system, commission spokesman Carl DeFebo said. But he added, it's unlikely to happen soon.

View full sizeJOHN C. WHITEHEAD, The Patriot-News/fileA truck heads through the E-Z Pass lane on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Swatara Twp.

A feasibility study completed in March predicted the conversion could take five years.

An all-electronic system is projected to save millions each year. More than half of the Turnpike's workforce is employed in collecting cash tolls at the system's more than 60 toll plazas across the state.

The turnpike employs 755 unionized toll collectors, who - along with approximately 100 nonunion employees associated with running the toll plazas - would be out of a job if the system converted to electronic collection.

The cost to man those toll plazas runs more than $67 million a year and is projected to rise to $77 million by 2014.

Energy and maintenance at the toll plazas cost another $20 million.

The all-electronic plan would eliminate the plazas and basically expand the technology currently in use for toll violators: cameras that snap photos of vehicle license plates, resulting in a toll fee being sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.

The E-ZPass system would continue and remain the cheapest option, DeFebo said.

But he added, "There's a lot of work that has to be done in the next five years."

DeFebo said there are "mileposts" in the plan that if not reached, "will signal the demise of the whole plan."

Vehicles from every state in the union - including Hawaii - use the turnpike every year, DeFebo said, and the commission must be able to collect tolls, as it does not receive tax dollars, he said.

The ability to access vehicle registration data from other states and the legal authority to collect tolls by mail in those states are both crucial to the operation of the system.

That could take federal legislation.

The text recognition computer software used to read license plates needs to be improved, he said.

DeFebo also said the commission has a sense of obligation to its employees and will continue to communicate with them as the process moves forward. He said other states have assisted with job placement and retraining for those made redundant by all-electronic systems.

"Our interest is to help them through this," DeFebo said.

The unions representing turnpike toll workers could not be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon.

According to an HNTB press release, the company will "be responsible for all aspects of the commission’s migration to AET, including overall program management and controls, toll system development and integration, business rules development, design review services, construction management services, legal and legislative coordination, financial planning, labor relations and public education and outreach services."

HNTB is an internationally known company that has been involved in the construction of highways, bridges, airports, sports stadia and other public projects for more than a century. Most recently, the company was hired to oversee the development of the 3.3 mile Istanbul Strait Crossing tunnel project in Turkey, connecting the European and the Asian sides of Istanbul by a road tunnel in a high seismic zone and under extreme water pressure.

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